What’s done is done, now. Iman Shumpert is a Cleveland Cavalier, Kyle Lowry is leading the first-place Toronto Raptors in points, assists and minutes played. And all the New York Knicks have to show for that is additional salary cap space and great uncertainty about their future.
Last season, however, the Knicks had a good opportunity to drastically change that course for all involved, in a way that might have made things a lot easier on their new regime, as it struggles to pick up the pieces of a franchise which has since plummeted to record-setting depths of futility.
That’s when the Raptors were seriously interested in giving the Knicks Lowry for Shumpert, and either then-rookie guard Tim Hardaway Jr. or a first-round draft pick.
As things have turned out since, New York’s worst start ever — at 5-33, with a current team-record 13-game losing streak — has the Knicks well-positioned to land a top-three pick, and very possibly the top overall pick in the coming draft in April.
For once, New York prudently held on to a chance at building for the future rather than mortgaging it for the opportunity of impulsively going for broke in the short-term as they had so many times before.
But with the eagerness Toronto was willing to give Lowry up last year, there was some serious talk that the Raptors might have parted with their star point guard without involving the Knicks’ 2015 pick.
Right up to last February’s trade deadline, some reports said that a package of Shumpert and Hardaway might have been enough to entice Toronto into shipping Lowry to New York.
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Another last-ditch option had the Atlanta Hawks trading guard Jeff Teague for Shumpert, with Lowry ending up a Knick.
Ultimately, of course, everyone stayed where they were, and Lowry helped lead the Raptors to an Atlantic Division title as the Knicks finished 11 games behind them while missing the playoffs.
Nothing much is changing on that front this season, as New York is well on its way to winning the fewest games in its 68-year history, as Toronto, the only team with a winning record in the Atlantic this year, is poised to take the division again, with the last-place Knicks already 21 games behind them.
Moving forward, there’s a good chance that the Knicks might eventually kick themselves for not giving in to the Raptors’ demands when they still had the chances to do so.
After starting this season strongly, Shumpert regressed to his previous inconsistent play before being plagued by injury as he was earlier in his career, at the end of his otherwise impressive rookie campaign.
Likewise, Hardaway had a good first year overall, but has failed to build upon that this season, as his poor defense and mediocre shooting overall (42.8 percent) last year have become worse. He has become even more of a defensive liability and has dipped to just 38.7 percent shooting during his sophomore season.
Desperate to see first-round draft picks finally succeed for their team, after so many years of the Knicks either not having picks (due to earlier bad trades) or seeing New York selecting poorly, Knicks fans seemed to have drastically overvalued how good Shumpert and Hardaway are and although it may be too soon to judge, their upside over time.
Many such fans, and some in the media said the Knicks would be giving up too much to offer Shumpert and either Hardaway or the first-round pick the Raptors coveted for Lowry.
The pick, perhaps, given how high that selection may become after what might end as New York’s worst season ever.
Shumpert plus Hardaway, though? Probably not.
Had the Knicks lured Lowry south of the border for that package, they might be a lot better off with what new team president Phil Jackson — who wasn’t hired until a few months after New York missed out on Lowry — is trying to build.
Jackson may be able to use the additional cap space he created by shipping Shumpert, along with guard J.R. Smith, to Cleveland, to bring in impactful enough free agents this summer and the next.
More realistically, though, he won’t be able to land his top choices from among the big unrestricted names, like Cleveland’s LeBron James and Kevin Love (each of whom have player options), Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge, Memphis’ Marc Gasol, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitski and Chandler Parsons, Phoenix’s Goran Dragic (player option), Detroit’s Greg Monroe and Brandon Jennings, Golden State’s David Lee or the Los Angeles Clippers’ Jamal Crawford, nor the less likely restricted free agents such as Chicago’s Jimmy Butler or Washington’s Bradley Beal,
Sans Shumpert and Smith, and facing and uphill climb just to finish with double-digit wins this season, Jackson might find it extremely difficult to convince anyone who can significantly help turn the Knicks around to come to New York as much as Toronto once wanted send Lowry there.
Sure, it would have been more challenging to keep both Anthony and Lowry last summer, but the Knicks, with team owner James Dolan’s deep pockets and willingness to overspend, could have exceeded the team’s salary cap to do so.
Had Lowry already been a Knick, alongside a top scorer like Carmelo Anthony, New York would suddenly have become a lot more of an attractive destination for those on the aforementioned free agent list, and for others. And the Knicks would have already had their point guard to run Jackson’s triangle offense instead of facing the very difficult task of having to procure one who is at least as good as Lowry.
It’s too late for Jackson to worry about that now, especially when he had no involvement in what the Knicks missed out on with Lowry. Yet he may be forced to pay the price for what could prove to be a big mistake made by those before him.
When it’s all said and done this summer, and in the one to follow, and perhaps beyond, the Knicks may regret ultimately trading Shumpert simply for cap space when they could have had their future point guard for what now appears to have been a bargain price.